Why I got back into collecting ColecoVision...

[TPR]

Arkadion for ColecoVision is bad! Don't buy this homebrew! Full review:

 

[TPR]

14 hours ago, TPR said:

Arkadion for ColecoVision is bad! Don't buy this homebrew! Full review:

 

And to further explain some of the issues in the game:

- Gameplay is repetitive and boring. 

 

- The game kept glitching out on me and I had to reset it. 

 

- I couldn’t even get the cartridge to work without having to clean it with Deoxit.

 

- The packaging is beyond terrible. 

 

- The menu screens were confusing and made no sense. 

 

- The game itself was confusing and made no sense. 

 

- The overall game quality was on par with a “magazine type-in” game from something like Compute’s Gazette of the 1980s.

 

- This should not have been a $59 game. It should have been a free ROM download or at worst a $10 ROM package containing 2-3 other similar quality games. 

 

- Milli can keep bragging as much as he wants about how many carts he’s sold, but number of games being sold DOES NOT equal games of good quality. And when he makes comments like that, all he’s doing is proving to the community that he’s more interested in a cash grab than actually making a quality game.

[jblenkle]

I've noticed 8-bit Milli posted on the Coleco ADAM Facebook group that he's checked his "sales figures" and has sold over 500 games since September (I assume all his games, not just Arkadion). But he's turned off comments for the post. So what's he hiding from?

 

I have never played his games, but have seen TPR's videos and comments and I can see the issues TPR mentions.

 

My problems with 8-bit Milli's games...having beta-tested a lot of Team Pixelboy titles...is that I think they are rushed into release. Some Pixelboy titles were tested for months to iron out all the bugs and gameplay issues. I'm not sure 8-bit Milli's games are tested at all or at least not extensively.

 

So yeah, they seem more like a magazine type-in game. And certainly not worth what he's charging for them.

[TPR]

1 hour ago, jblenkle said:

I've noticed 8-bit Milli posted on the Coleco ADAM Facebook group that he's checked his "sales figures" and has sold over 500 games since September

I saw that, too.  This was his comment, which I assume was a passive aggressive response to my video:

Quote

I was just looking at sales figures and I didn’t realize that 8 Bit Milli Games has sold over 500 games since September of last year. I guess I must be doing something right

 

My thoughts on that are:

 

1. Number of copies sold DOES NOT equal quality of game.

2. Based on that comment, it would imply that he thinks his games aren't flawed as he "must be doing something right."

3. The "something" he is doing right is knowing damn well he can make a quick buck from people in the CV community that will buy at least one of every homebrew game out there for those who want to have everything in their collection. (myself included in that category.)  

4. IMO, he is clearly more interested in making the money than he is producing a quality game.

 

1 hour ago, jblenkle said:

I have never played his games, but have seen TPR's videos and comments and I can see the issues TPR mentions.

And I'm not the only one. Almost immediately after posting that video, several comments were made on different socials where I posted it to saying they had also bought the game and experienced similar issues in the quality of the cartridge, packaging, and the game itself.  I mean, the packaging alone... why would you make a box where you can't even close the top of it???  There is no flap on the top at all.  I don't think I've ever seen that done by anyone else. The guy simply just doesn't care.

 

1 hour ago, jblenkle said:

My problems with 8-bit Milli's games...having beta-tested a lot of Team Pixelboy titles...is that I think they are rushed into release. Some Pixelboy titles were tested for months to iron out all the bugs and gameplay issues. I'm not sure 8-bit Milli's games are tested at all or at least not extensively.

 

So yeah, they seem more like a magazine type-in game. And certainly not worth what he's charging for them.

100% exactly!  I've also helped out with other homebrewers as well as working professionally in the video game industry for over two decades and the level of polish and testing on Milli's games is completely non-existent. The fact that the cartridge didn't even work, and that I had to clean it myself, and also the game continued to glitch out on me (I had that graphical glitch in the video happen several times and it was easy to reproduce) just shows the overall lack of any care or quality control.

 

And yeah, I'm sure I've typed in better games from the back of a magazine than anything Milli has put out so far. The idea that he's asking $59 including shipping, which IMO is a the "premium" cost for a homebrew, is just insane to me.  That's why in the description of the YouTube video I told people "instead of paying $59 for this game, go download the 9 free ROMs that Inufuto made and you'll have a much better gaming experience! 

[TPR]

For those of you who just wanted to see some Arkadion gameplay footage, here you go. You can decide for yourself if you think this ColecoVision homebrew is worth $59.

 

As I said in my full review, for $59, I think this game is flat out "bad," if it were a free ROM download, or a $10 download with a pack of three similar quality games, I think that would be fine. I mean, Inufuto released 9 games for free... all of which IMO are better than Arkadion.  So that should set some sort of benchmark. 

 

But there is simply NO WAY this game is worth $59 and IMO it is damaging to the homebrew community as someone might buy this as their very first ColecoVision homebrew and think this is what the quality of other homebrews is like.

 

This footage is straight out of my game capture, not edited in any way.  I left the part at the end where the game glitched out on me so people can see it was something easy to reproduce. I've now had it happen 3 or 4 times by simply ending the game and restarting.

 

[TPR]

So I bought one of the "Reproduction ColecoVision Console Boxes" recently from consoleboxes.com and here are some of my thoughts...

 

Overall, this is the best looking reproduction of the ColecoVision console box I've seen (it's also the ONLY reproduction I've see, so there's that...) and I'm quite happy with the purchase as it does look fine sitting up on the shelf along with a couple of other real ColecoVision boxes. (Repro is on the far right)

 

That being said, this was a $100 product (actually $108 total after the conversion from GBP to USD) so I think I'm entitled to nitpick a little bit here...

 

 - If there's one thing I've never quite understood about printing is that the original "silver" in the ColecoVision box seems almost impossible to reproduce, and I can't figure out why that is.  If Coleco was able to do it in 1982, why can't we do 40 years later?  And it's not just ConsoleBoxes but I've heard from other people that the shiny silver Coleco used is really hard to do.  Has printing really not evolved that much in 40 years that we can't pull this off today?  It's weird, right?  

 

 - I noticed that a lot of the images on the reproduction box just seem darker overall. Specifically take a look at the controller and the Donkey Kong screen shot in the images below compared to the original box.  This is apparently throughout the entire box.  It's not "bad" but it is "noticeable." 

 

 - Here's something else odd I noticed. I cannot tell if it's due to the darker look of the reproduction box, but the "Donkey Kong Cabinet" in the upper left hand corner seems to be a different image on the reproduction box than it is on any of the original boxes (see photos below) and it was something that caught my eye right away.  I'm not exactly sure what is going on there, but something most certainly seems a little off about it.

 

 - While I don't have the exact same CBS ColecoVision box in my collection (one of the reasons I got the reproduction box) I did find a few decent shots of it online, and the same issues that I noticed above are also apparent in the original box as well as the originals that I have. I did also notice that the CBS Box variant that I do have IS slightly darker than the original US box, especially in the controller sitting off to the left of the console, but not as dark as the reproduction box.

 

All photos below are mine unless otherwise noted. Also, other than cropping the photos I have not altered any of them in any way. They are straight out of my camera.

 

Reproduction box:

 

 

Original box: (not my photo)

 

Reproduction Box:

 

Reproduction Box:

 

Reproduction is on the far right:

 

Reproduction on the bottom:

 

Reproduction on the bottom:

 

Reproduction on the bottom:

 

Reproduction box:

 

Original US box:

 

Orignial CBS box:

 

Reproduction box:

 

Original box:

 

Original box: (not my photo)

 

Reproduction box:

 

Side by side looking at the Donkey Kong machine:

 

As I said, overall I'm happy with the box.  Could it have been a little closer to the original?  Yes, I would have preferred that and maybe on a later run they'll get it closer. I would have also liked to have seen a version of the US box in their store, but being that they are European based (UK) I understand why they went with the CBS version of the box.  But I think if you're just looking for something to sit on a shelf showcasing the console, it's probably fine. 

[TPR]

@opcode have just released two new ColecoVision games last night via "Digital ROM Distribution" due to the chip shortage and here is a look at one of them, "Bull & Mighty's Critical Moment."  The other game that was released was Magical Wiz Kid.  These are both available for purchase to Opcode Club Members and each ROM was $20 or both for $35, which is a VERY reasonable price considering the quality of the games!

 

The video of Bull & Mighty's shows off the first level of the game which has sort of a "Keystone Kapers" meets "Drol" meets "The Heist" feel to it.  You have to navigate several levels of this building collecting and planting bombs and then once the last bomb is planted you have a limited time to get out of the building.  The game is quite fun and I would highly recommend it!

 

If you aren't a member of the Opcode Club you should contact then to become a club member, or at very least subscribe to their email list to get notifications of new releases:

https://tinyurl.com/ysm3xmxc 

 

 

[PitfallJohn]

This is probably a stupid question but I signed up for the Opcode club when it came out. I have been to their website multiple times and keep finding broken links. I contacted them through Facebook about their website a long time ago and they stated it was in progress. I want to buy their games, especially the new DK game, but I can’t figure out how to purchase them. Can someone please let me know what I am doing wrong?  Thanks in advance. 

[TPR]

1 hour ago, PitfallJohn said:

This is probably a stupid question but I signed up for the Opcode club when it came out. I have been to their website multiple times and keep finding broken links. I contacted them through Facebook about their website a long time ago and they stated it was in progress. I want to buy their games, especially the new DK game, but I can’t figure out how to purchase them. Can someone please let me know what I am doing wrong?  Thanks in advance. 

Yeah, I've noticed that their website hasn't been updated in a while.  I do all my communication with them via email. I would just try to message them again via FB or you can even try to send a message to @opcode here on AtariAge. 

[jblenkle]

On 3/5/2022 at 3:28 PM, TPR said:

@opcode have just released two new ColecoVision games last night via "Digital ROM Distribution" due to the chip shortage and here is a look at one of them, "Bull & Mighty's Critical Moment."  The other game that was released was Magical Wiz Kid.  These are both available for purchase to Opcode Club Members and each ROM was $20 or both for $35, which is a VERY reasonable price considering the quality of the games!

 

The video of Bull & Mighty's shows off the first level of the game which has sort of a "Keystone Kapers" meets "Drol" meets "The Heist" feel to it.  You have to navigate several levels of this building collecting and planting bombs and then once the last bomb is planted you have a limited time to get out of the building.  The game is quite fun and I would highly recommend it!

 

If you aren't a member of the Opcode Club you should contact then to become a club member, or at very least subscribe to their email list to get notifications of new releases:

https://tinyurl.com/ysm3xmxc 

 

 

I had put off joining Opcode's club, but these two titles peaked my interest enough to sign up!!!

[PitfallJohn]

8 hours ago, TPR said:

Yeah, I've noticed that their website hasn't been updated in a while.  I do all my communication with them via email. I would just try to message them again via FB or you can even try to send a message to @opcode here on AtariAge. 

Thanks for the advice. I emailed them and they emailed me

back so I now have a way to order their games. Thanks again!

[grownup]

That Spectravideo computer looks great. I never actually saw one in action before. Many years ago I found loads and loads of tape games for it at a thrift shop. All the games are in excellent condition in the original Norelco boxes. I found these years ago and have never used them because I never found a Spectra video computer in the wild. I'll probably end up selling them someday. That computer has pretty good graphics and looks like a nice little unit. Thanks for sharing the video. I just found this post and I'll have to look through some of your other posts to see what else you ve shown